OPINION | Don Martin: Justin Trudeau’s downfall has begun
“After weeks of research with almost everyone I’ve met … the overall judgment on Justin Trudeau is a political write-off,” writes Don Martin in an opinion column for CTVNews.ca. “He is wide-awake, very precious, preachy in tone, extremely self-righteous, lacking in leadership, fading in celebrity, slow to act, short-sighted in vision, and generally becoming more irritating with every public statement you whisper,” Martin writes.
title: “Patrick Brown Has Been Ruled Out Of The Race For The Conservative Leadership " ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-10” author: “Daryl Jacques”
The Patrick Brown campaign said it was consulting its legal team after the federal Conservative leadership election organizing committee voted to drop him from the race late Tuesday. Ian Brodie, chairman of the commission, announced the surprise move in a written statement after a meeting to discuss the matter. He said the party had recently been made aware of “serious allegations of wrongdoing” by the Brown campaign. The allegations relate to funding rules under the Canada Elections Act, Brody said, but did not elaborate. The Brown campaign responded with a statement accusing the party of basing its decision on “anonymous allegations” and without providing full details or evidence. He accused the party of going on a “fishing expedition” and not giving the campaign “plenty of time” to respond, but said it “still complied with every outlandish request and baseless claim”. He went on to say the move disenfranchises thousands of Brown supporters who bought party memberships by the June 3 deadline to select his name on the Conservative Party’s rank-and-file ballot. “This is reprehensible, undemocratic behavior that shatters the faith of hundreds of thousands of Canadians who have embraced Patrick Brown’s vision of a modern, inclusive Conservative party,” the statement said. In his statement late Tuesday night, Brody said the party’s chief returns officer informed Brown of the concerns he received about his campaign finance, requesting a written response, and decided to withhold the provisional membership list from his campaign. Brody said the response from Brown’s campaign did not address the concerns, and the returning officer recommended to the election’s organizing committee to disqualify him, which voted in favor. Brody said the party will share what it has with Elections Canada. He said both he and the party’s returns chief did their best to be fair to Brown, who is the current mayor of Brampton, Ont., and a former leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservatives. He also said they were doing everything they could to give time to counter the allegations. “None of these problems have any impact on the integrity of the vote itself,” Brody said. “While we felt it was important to provide a transparent response to party members regarding this matter, because this matter is now subject to further investigation, we will not be speaking further on the matter.” The Brown campaign accused the party of acting in favor of the leadership candidate seen as his main rival for the top job. “Why is this party doing this? It was waiting for a coronation for Pierre Pouliev,” the statement said. The campaigns for Poilievre, a longtime Ottawa-area MP, and Brown have been attacking each other throughout the race. Poilievre had yet to respond to the leadership election organizing committee’s decision as of late Tuesday night. The campaign for former Quebec premier Jean Sarres, who is also in the leadership contest, responded by calling the news “deeply troubling.” “We await further communications regarding the allegations of wrongdoing,” Charest campaign spokeswoman Michelle Coates-Mather wrote. “Transparency is paramount. We need to understand what the allegations are and how Patrick Brown’s campaign has responded.” The Conservatives will announce the winner of the leadership race in Ottawa on September 10. The other candidates in the race are Leslyn Lewis and Scott Aitchison, Conservative MPs from Ontario, as well as Roman Baber, a former independent member of the Ontario legislature. Although disqualified, his name is still expected to appear on the ranking ballot. A party spokesman said late Tuesday that a large batch of them had already been mailed to members. Last week, the party said around 675,000 members had registered to vote for a new Conservative leader. This report by The Canadian Press was first published on July 5, 2022.
